Saturn wrote:As for me, I'm content to learn what I can myself, in my own time and at my own pace, not under the immense and dangerous pressure of formal education.

I commend you for that, Stephen--true self education requires an enormous amount of discipline and drive (ie. Keats!)--you certainly have that. And I equally commend my grad school sisters on this forum--a remarkably intelligent female mind is a wondrous thing...

There's too many folks out there who toil away at a degree (or degrees) and leave university only to never again open a book or endeavor to learn a nugget or two of anything outside their line of work. I know loads of people like that.

Obviously, I haven't studied my rear off to earn the bucks--I say this emphatically while I sit in my classroom and watch my students take their Frankenstein exam--the one I stayed up until 1am making for them--and the alarm rang at 5am--as dreadfully usual.

I, too, dream of winning a pile of money. But whenever I think about using it to pay off all of my multitudinous student loans, I try to train myself to quickly divert my thoughts to dream vacations or favorite local charities. On the proverbial list of enjoying life while it lasts and helping others less fortunate, Sallie Mae comes savagely last...

"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the Truth of Imagination."

dks wrote:Yeah, isn't it quirky cute we give a lending institution a frilly girl name like Sallie Mae?

She would sound innocent and sweet--in reality she sucks the life out of those of us who just want to learn--something that should be free...

David Sedaris made a great joke about Sallie Mae very much in the same vein, dks. He said, in effect, that Sallie Mae sounds like a nice, benign Southern gal but in fact is a monster financial institution that would be very willing to take your first child if you can't make payments on time. How true!

My Lord! Is Sallie Mae the Satan we all owe our souls to? It looks like I'm going to be paying her roughly 25,000, give or take, before it is all said and done. I know that is nothing to what you all have to pay, but still, isn't strangely sinister that we are all paying this to the same company?

"Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But, when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire."

The former is actually only because it was the only option I had for funding a federal loan for UL. I don't think most lenders will support schools overseas, so Sallie Mae sort of automatically gets all the international students because they do. It is pretty sinister when you think about it.

I know this was ages ago - but yes that would be such a good idea for a meet up. Though I wonder if it would be possible to arrange local ones too- you know like sort of cafe bar meetings for like minded people? if anyone has some ideas I'd welcome them. I have plenty of friends but none of them are much into literature and art the way I am ( and none of them are mad on John Keats either... )I suppose it comes from me not watching TV- books absorb me in the ways some people get absorbed into tv programmes! I wish I had some friends who would love to talk about John keats, potry, art and literature- heck if I had the money I'd go and do a Masters in literature just for the conversations and tutorials alone. This board is so good!

John....you did not live to see-who we are because of what you left,what it is we are in what we make of you.Peter Sanson, 1995.

For what it's worth I still think a meeting in Louisville, Kentucky makes sense (at least to our US forum friends) and it would be less expensive than England. Louisville is where George Keats lived and died so it makes sense. And it is somewhat centrally located in the US, so most can get there withing a few hours. Just some musings of course.

"Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly. Dry your eyes... and let's go home."

That would probably be the closest I'll be able to get for a reunion--although Louisville is quite a ways from Washington State--though not as far away as England! I would say if anyone is going to be in England in about a month's time then maybe we can meet up (in either Durham or London) but I think that will be my last trip to Britain for another decade or two (it'll take me that long to raise the travel money again! ).

It might be cool to do a live chat someday--we can do *that* as Keats Society, I think. It would, of course, be very cool if we could live chat via Wimba or Skype something, but even just a group text chat in an online chat room is certainly doable, I'd think. Anyone up for that?